COMBAT ROLE OPENS TO FEMALE SAILORS

Navy to allow women on shallow patrol boats that infiltrate enemy turf, fight at close range

During the Vietnam War, U.S. Navy swift boats patrolled the dangerous waters of the Mekong Delta. Fifty sailors from those units died in the line of duty.

This month, as the U.S. military inches forward with its controversial plan to open combat to women, the Navy will notify Congress it is ready to allow female sailors to step into jobs that are the modern equivalent of those Vietnam river patrols.

Women will soon be able to serve aboard 30- to 50-foot shallow boats designed to take on bad guys at close range, with a crew of a half-dozen sailors.

A select subset of these “riverine” sailors also goes ashore to infiltrate enemy turf, gather information and blow up stored weapons.

That mission — now opening to female sailors — could lead to hand-to-hand combat, the kind of ground fighting that the American military until now has reserved for men.

It’s just a small corner of the Navy. Only 2,500 people serve in the active-duty coastal riverine force, about half of which is on the West Coast, headquartered in Imperial Beach.

But advocates for equal access in the armed forces say that’s progress.

“This is a good example of how the policy is supposed to be implemented,” said Greg Jacob, a former Marine infantry officer who is policy director of the Service Women’s Action Network.

“The Navy has thrown the doors open to the riverine course and let women in. They didn’t say, ‘We’re going to do an experiment,’ like the Marines and the Army,” Jacob said.

The Army, Marines and Navy SEALs have until 2016 to present a plan to integrate women in fighting units, or prove why it’s not feasible. That deadline was set in January by then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta when he removed the longtime restriction that kept women out of direct combat jobs. Women have been allowed to serve on warships and fly combat missions since the mid-1990s.

The Marines are now allowing the first women through the eight-week enlisted infantry course, but only to study their performance for decision-making. The first six women to attempt the 13-week Marine Corps infantry officer course dropped out before finishing this year.

Unlike Marine Corps infantry and the Navy SEALs, there is no special physical fitness test with pull-ups or push-ups that female riverine sailors must pass to be eligible for the newly opened combat positions.

Men and women have to finish a 12-week, on-the-ground training course at the Marine Corps’ Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. They’ll learn small-squad tactics, fighting in urban terrain and the joys of lugging a pack full of gear, plus weapons, over miles.

Four women have graduated from the Lejeune riverine security team course, and all are assigned to an East Coast riverine company that has the potential for combat security teams, though none are up and running.

Those sailors declined to be interviewed. But, in a Navy news story, some of the women discussed the difficulty of the course, including the lack of sleep in the field and the necessity of staying on their toes.